Ready mix concrete is concrete prepared at a central location, rather than at a job site. The concrete is delivered to the job site in a ready mix concrete truck. A ready mix concrete truck includes a rotational mixer that stores the concrete and pours the concrete using a chute. Such a chute is commonly referred to as a ready mix chute.
At some job sites it is necessary to more precisely control the distribution of the concrete. It may be difficult to accurately position the ready mix chute. One known concrete accessory is a hopper which attaches to the end of the ready mix chute to distribute concrete easily and accurately. Such a hopper includes a plastic cone having a wide opening at a top and a narrower opening at a bottom. The cone is formed of a flat piece of plastic rolled into a cone with opposite ends bolted together to maintain the conical shape. An elongate sleeve, known as an elephant trunk, is conventionally bolted around the bottom opening to control the delivery of the concrete.
This known hopper is functional, but costly to manufacture. Extensive labor is required to assemble such a device as the two ends of the material pattern are bent to meet and then are fastened together with hardware at the seam. This design also requires labor and hardware to connect a pipe and chain to the hopper so that it may in turn be connected to the ready mix chute. Finally, this version requires a labor intensive process that uses expensive hardware to connect the elephant trunk to the boftom of the hopper. Also, the seam in the hopper and the fastening hardware provide surfaces on which concrete or grout-like material may become embedded and make it more difficult to clean the hopper.
The present application is directed to improvements in concrete accessories.